Tween Dream

Young fans of “High School Musical”

At 6 A.M. one recent Thursday, a barista at a Times Square Starbucks was puzzled to see dozens of teen-age girls streaming past the window, many of them carrying homemade signs. They had come, a customer explained, to see the cast of “High School Musical” perform on “Good Morning America.” The blue-eyed boy whose face was pasted on the placards was the film’s nineteen-year-old star, Zac Efron. “He’s been in what, one movie?” said the Starbucks guy. “People fall in love quickly around here.”

As anyone who has been within shrieking distance of a sixth grader during the past year knows, “High School Musical” is more than a movie. It’s a crucial way station on the developmental road between “Powerpuff Girls” and “Mean Girls.” The original Disney Channel film, about a basketball player (Efron) and a math nerd (Vanessa Hudgens) who defy the social contract and audition for the school musical, has spawned a concert tour, the best-selling album of 2006, an untold number of Facebook tribute pages, and a sequel, which premières this week.

Outside the “G.M.A.” studio, two lines snaked around the block: one for ticket holders, one for standbys. About seventy people into the standby line was a group of sixteen-year-old girls from Ramsey, New Jersey, each holding a sign: Sam Campbell (“WE LOVE YOU ZAC”), Katherine Wilson (“WE LOVE YOU CORBIN”), Megan Naude (“ZAC ATTACK”), Regina Guinto (“PLS HUG ME IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!”), and Lauren McCarthy (“HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL ITS LIKE A RAINBOW IN MY EYES SO NICE I LIKE IT”). “We had, like, seven cups of coffee, and Red Bull,” Katherine, who was wearing a tank top and plaid shorts and was shaking uncontrollably, said. “We stayed up all night. I’m not lying. None of us slept.”

“We took a limo,” Lauren said.

“For her birthday,” Katherine said, jerking her head toward Regina. “We didn’t sleep all night. Did I say that?”

Katherine explained that her dream encounter with the cast would be at Taco Bell. (“With all my friends there. I’d buy them all tacos.”) Nonetheless, Regina, whose mother had dropped the girls off in Times Square at 4 A.M., was acknowledged by the others to be the biggest Zac Efron fan.

“He grew up in California. He has a younger brother named Dylan. He’s a Libra. He’s dating Vanessa Hudgens. He’s in ‘Hairspray.’ His first big thing was ‘Summerland.’ He had a gap in his teeth, but he got that fixed. He went to Hawaii with Vanessa. That’s common knowledge. We saw him at the ‘Today’ show two weeks ago, but I didn’t get his autograph. His hair is amazing,” Regina said.

Farther down the line were seventeen girls wearing white tuxedos. “We’re a dance group,” one of them said. “We competed yesterday at the Marriott Marquis, at Dance Masters of America’s national competition, and we received a platinum and we’re coming here to try to get on TV.” They began to tap-dance.

“We all love ‘High School Musical,’ ” another dancer said.

The first dancer corrected her: “We’d actually rather get on TV.”

They were interrupted by a scream. It was Katherine, Regina, and Lauren, who had run to the front of the line to catch a glimpse of the cast in rehearsal.

“We saw them in the studio!” said Katherine, her bracelets clacking as her arms continued to shake.

“But the police ushered us out.”

“I couldn’t breathe.”

“I know.”

“And the people who have tickets were laughing at us.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

The three of them huddled. Was it worth it to sneak back, even if they might get stopped by the police again?

“Carpe diem.”

“Carpe diem. Come on.”

The ticketed audience had filed into the studio, and kids at the front of the standby line were allowed to crowd into the area outside the studio windows. The girls from New Jersey made it through; the dancers did not. The line was cut off in front of a group of girls wearing yellow T-shirts that they had spray-painted the night before.

“Assemble!” Reena Aquino, their leader, said. The gang lined up so that their shirts read, “HSM2!”

The segment was about to tape. A man wearing a headset suggested to the remaining standbys that they go across the street and watch on the JumboTron. Reena and her friends walked over to a traffic island, on Broadway, and took up positions next to the tuxedoed girls, who were doing their tap routine.

“We’re like a big yellow blob, so they’ll see us from in there,” Reena’s friend Nicole said. They looked up at the JumboTron, on which Diane Sawyer could be seen shuffling papers.

“What’s her name?” Reena said. “I don’t watch this show.”

Nicole shrugged. “Katie Couric?” ♦

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